A Curious Kind of Devotion

Luis Scott-Vargas plays, writes, and makes videos about Magic. He has played on the Pro Tour for almost a decade, and between that and producing content for ChannelFireball, often has his hands full (of cards).

I haven't featured a deck with Karn Liberated for a while, so I figured it was time to rectify that grievous oversight. Of course, this particular Karn Liberated deck only has a single copy of the most powerful of the Planeswalkers, but the rest of the deck looks pretty sweet too.

Titan's power is well-known by now, and despite the fact that there are no Valakut, the Molten Pinnacles to fetch here, getting a Forest and a Nykthos is already a huge boost in mana. You can even use Curio to bounce the Nykthos if you haven't played a land yet, leading to some explosive turns. Arbor Elf, Fertile Ground, and Utopia Sprawl round out the ramp spells, and they too combine very well, with all the Auras going on the same Forest for the Elf to untap.

Once you've generated a million mana, you do have to do something with it, and Genesis Wave (plus Karn Liberated!) is that thing. Genesis Wave often chains into more Waves, as Eternal Witnesses can bring back previous Waves, and untapped lands and Auras can fuel the next Wave of threats. The new legend rule helps immensely here, as multiple Garruks in the same turn let you continue to untap Nykthos, making it pretty realistic to Genesis Wave every threat out of your deck.